Beltway Insider: Trump/Kavanaugh Hearings; G7 Conflict; Cybersecurity; Indonesia Disaster; ISIS; Elon Musk; Bill Cosby

President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly this week invoking laughter from world leaders as he explained, "in the last two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country."

According to Gallup, President Trump's job approval, over the past week, increased by two percentage points to 40% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President remained constant at 56%.

The United Nations Hosts The General Assembly

World leaders from every member nation of the United Nations converged on New York City over the past week to meet with other world leaders and to hear various leaders speak on the state of the world.

President Trump, who has had difficulty with leaders of the G7 and especially Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the two each stood their ground at the last G7 Summit when Trump refused to endorse the G7 released statement after he indicated he would direct his proxies to sign on his behalf. He then left the meeting to meet with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un, whom he says he just "fell in love with."

President Trump also thanked Chairman Kim Jong Un, in front of the entire General Assembly, for his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and in the effort to repatriate the remains of Korean War Veterans.


Beltway Insider: Trump's SCOTUS Nominee Kavanaugh Faces Senate; Second Female Found; Cybersecurity; Wilmington; POW/MIA


President Trump did hold many bi-lateral meetings with G7 leaders and sidebars with General Assembly nations. He is continuing his efforts in China and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

For Americans

"America's economy is booming. Since my election, we've added $10 trillion in wealth. The stock market is at an all-time high, and jobless claims are at a 50-year low. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment have all achieved their lowest levels ever recorded. We've added more than 4 million new jobs, including half a million manufacturing jobs. We have passed the biggest tax cuts in American history. We have secured record funding for our military. The United States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I assumed office less than two years ago," the President said.

Click here to access President Trump's General Assembly Speech

Trump Litmus Test For Sexual Assault Credibility and Brett Kavanaugh Hearings

As Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh asserts his innocence against the three women, who have come forward explaining when they knew this man he had attempted to sexually assault them, the nomination hearings have taken on the similar pattern of powerful men facing public humiliation over actions they believed would never be exposed.

An expected week-long throurough FBI investigation, which the White House has explained the president would prefer those investigating speak to only two of the women and not the third.

The White House has indicated classmates of Brett Kavanaugh said the allegations in The New Yorker would be totally out of character for him. Friends, family members, and colleagues of convicted sex offender Bill Cosby have said the same of him.

One can assume the behavior would be totally out of character. One does not see Kavanaugh as a serial predator whose breathes for the thrill of getting away with it. However, it is also fair to conclude the women are inherently truthful and the allegations, while not substantiated by dormmates, the entire class body or even the drunken buddies, are also inherently truthful.

President Trump was asked during a Press Conference at the United Nations General Assembly on his statements slandering all three of these women as "liars."

A unidentified female reporter asked him "Why is it, Mr. President, that you always seem to side with the accused and not the accuser?  You have three women here who are all making allegations, who are all asking that their stories be heard.  And, you know, if you look at the case of Roy Moore, if you look at the case of one of your staffers, you seem to, time and again, side with the accused and not the accuser.  Is that because of the many allegations that you've had made against you over the years?"

The president replied, "As far as women, whether it's a man or a woman, these are — you know, it can happen the other way.  Allegations can go the other way also.  You understand that.  And whether it was a man or a woman, 30 years ago, 36 years ago — in fact, they don't even know how many years ago because nobody knows what the time is.  That's a long time." So, as always, the side step.

Female reporters tried to explain to the President that victims are often reluctant to come forward, which is a predators, dream scenario. The President remained stone deaf. His belief remains reporting rape and sexual assault is the litmus test to proving it. He contends women who refuse to report the crime do so  because there was no crime. The unfortunate reduction is the President of the United States subscribes to the theory of they wanted it that's why they didn't report it.

Will this derail the vote? It's doubtful. Which leads to the upcoming mid-term elections.

Cybersecurity Plan

With cybersecurity the new catch phrase surrounding Washington Politics, President Trump has taken it to a new level and created a four point Cyber Security Strategy, which no other administration has addressed.

"This Administration will not treat cyberspace as a separate arena. Instead, we are integrating cyber into all elements of national power. Structuring the National Cyber Strategy around the four pillars of the National Security Strategy reflects and advances and this approach," the president said.

The key points in this four pillar strategy are: Protect the American people, the Homeland and the American Way of Life; Promote American Prosperity; Preserve peace through Strength and Advance American Influence.

The strategy moves to protect American way of life against cyber threats from within and without. Protecting every system which supports a normalized society, securing critical infrastructure and protecting air and ground transportation systems, home and business electrical GRID systems and additional critical infrastructures protecting financial, medical and governmental systems from hacking or other more serious and disabling cyber assaults.

To preserve through peace: "We will identify, counter, disrupt, degrade, and deter behavior in cyberspace that is destabilizing and contrary to our national interests, while preserving America's overmatch in and through cyberspace," the president said.

Cyber security continues to be a viable threat as hackers, outside of the terrorist organization or interagency governmental technological warfare, are either highly advanced career criminals, middle level hackers with malicious intent or kids looking to prove their tech prowess.

Indonesia Disaster: Earthquake and Tsunami Devastates Island Nation

A powerful, 7.5 surface earthquake struck the island nation of Sulawesi, Friday evening, causing widespread devastation in the densely populated town of Donggala, 35miles northeast of the earthquake's six mile deep epicenter which then triggering a catastrophic tsunami.

"Stepping in between the ruins of the Balaroa National Park building, traces of damage were left in parts of Palu city after the earthquake that shook Central Sulawesi. As a result of the earthquake and tsunami, the roads were cut off, the airport was not fully landed by planes, new electricity was partially alive, and the fuel supply was hampered. I estimate that BBM can only get here in two days. Currently, heavy equipment from Mamuju and Gorontalo are already on their way to the disaster site. I hope the community is patient. We are working on this together. After recovery, we will rehabilitate and reconstruct people's houses as soon as possible," President Joko Widodo said via Facebook.

Tsunami

The wall of water, which has been reported to be ten to 20 feet high, crashed onto the shore and in seconds destroyed anything in its path. Twisting steel like a child's toy, the force of the water knocked down everything in its path. Mangling vehicles, wrapping them around cement blocks, the water became a muddied floating debris field, wrecking homes, buildings, and of course anyone inside the homes.

"The ground rose up like a spine and suddenly fell," resident Nur Indah said while crying. "Many people were trapped and buried under collapsed houses. I could do nothing to help. In the evening, some of them turned on their cellphones just to give a sign that they were there. But the lights were off later and the next day," the Weather Channel reported.

The death toll, which is expected to be in the thousands, was initially reported as less than five hundred. Now, two days after the Friday evening quake, the numbers are quickly increasing as the expectation of finding survivors diminishes with every hour.

With potential survivors buried under collapsed buildings, sealed with a wall of mud, rescue workers are working around the clock in the race against time to find and save any survivors.

Concentrating on hotels, hospitals and other buildings where many people would have been located rescuers are also using sonar equipment to detect sounds hoping to find survivors. The local mall which was also crowded on Friday evening, was reduced to disjointed, blocks of concrete as the quake buckled the building and the tsunami separated any remains resembling a structure.

Amateur videographers were able to captured the tsunami from a causeway bridge. The wall of water, which experts indicate had been intensified as it was forced into an inlet, like a funnel, and as most structures in the island nation did not meet building codes and as a result, even before the Tsunami, were reduced to rubble.

Disaster centers are located throughout the region From the airport I visited several disaster centers in Balaroa National Park, Talise Beach, Undata Hospital and refugee shelters in Vatulemo Square.

Writing the Obituary on the Islamic State

President Trump has lauded himself on many occasions as the greatest president the United States has ever had. He has compared himself to leaders of the greatest generation. More recently his boosts are sending alarms as he has decided the Islamic State and the War on ISIS is over and the obituary of the terror organization is simply a post script in democratic history leadership.

Former President George W. Bush thought the same when the statute of Saddam Hussain, the butcher of Baghdad, was pulled from its pedastal and his people liberated and he killed. His death only allowed for another more treacherous group to rise. The Islamic State may be on the run, they are not, however dismantled and destroyed . . . yet.

Tesla Company and Founder Elon Musk Nabbed by SEC

The Security and Exchange Commission has fined Elon Musk, founder of the Tesla Company $40million dollars for his statements on taking his company public. Shares in the privately held company rose sharply on the news.

How did the man of the hour, with ambitious plans and considered brilliant become the target of an SEC investigation? Twitter and nine words.

On August 7, 2018 Elon Musk tweeted, "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. [per share] Funding Secured."

"The SEC's complaint alleged that, in truth, Musk knew that the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies.  Musk had not discussed specific deal terms, including price, with any potential financing partners, and his statements about the possible transaction lacked an adequate basis in fact.  According to the SEC's complaint, Musk's misleading tweets caused Tesla's stock price to jump by over six percent on August 7, and led to significant market disruption," the SEC said in a statement.

Tesla was also charged with failing to regulate disclosures Musk may, on a whim decide to post via twitter and other social platforms. Failing to have a safety system in place allowed Musk to move ahead with the information. Twitter, even at the nine word tipping point for Musk, may have contained information "required to be disclosed in Tesla's SEC filings." 

An investigation by the SEC found Musk had either spoke without full knowledge of his company's plans or intentionally misled shareholders on his intentions.

According to the SEC statement Musk and Tesla have agreed to settle the charges against them without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations.  Among other relief, the settlements require that:

  • Musk will step down as Tesla's Chairman and be replaced by an independent Chairman.  Musk will be ineligible to be re-elected Chairman for three years;
  • Tesla will appoint a total of two new independent directors to its board;
  • Tesla will establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk's communications;
  • Musk and Tesla will each pay a separate $20 million penalty.  The $40 million in penalties will be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process. 

Disgraced Comedian Bill Cosby Sentenced

Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby was sentenced this week to three to ten years for the sexual assault of a former Temple University who was just one of nearly 70 women said to have come forward alleging the former funny man drugged, rape and or sexually assaulted them over fifty years.


Op/Ed: Adding My Voice and Story to the Many Who Were Once Silenced by Violence


The employee, who asserted the allegation more than a decade was largely ignored by the system and prosecutors who looked upon the former mega star with deity status and the women, 30, 40 , 50, and more, as climbers, do anything's, for a chance at celebrity.

Northing could have been further from the truth. The women, many households names in their own right, carved out careers, continued forward carrying the burden hoping for justice. Elusive justice from a system that favors the perpetrator, greets celebrity and affluent rapists with hands out, greased palms, and delays until of course statutes run out and the hope of justice dies.

For the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania prosecutor, Kevin Steele, the idea of allowing this serial predator, to walk free to rape again, to continue his diseased, sick, life inflicting this evil on how many others, was just too much. Or possibly the idea of distinguishing himself, where others refused to trend was the draw, maybe he actually held to the allegiance he pledged.

For whatever reason Steele and this one survivor/victim, whom the rapist thought put down erasing the memory also, who faced every legal hurdle great wealth can buy, a hung jury, more delays, more maneuvering until finally the jury return the guilty verdict and America's Dad was sentenced.

Victory for one breathes life into the hope of victory for all.

Wall Street's Biggest Heist

For more information on President Donald Trump: www.whitehouse.gov

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.com

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